The Inmate and her Visitor
by Starberry-Cupcake
Summary: Ursa finally comes back and goes to visit her daughter to the mental health facility she is in. Will she be able to start putting back together the pieces of Azula's broken and battered soul? Set after the series' finale and during/after The Promise.


**Disclaimer: **I do not own Avatar, The Last Airbender (or The Promise); if I did, I'd have my own panels in Comic-Con.

**Main Character:** Azula

**When it takes place: **After the series finale and in between or after The Promise, depending on how it will eventually turn out.

**Raiting: **K+

**Extra info: **This isn't a songfic but while I was writing it, the song "Castledown" by Emilie Autumn came to my mind.

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><p><strong>The Inmate and her Visitor<strong>

She entered the solitary cell and saw the girl curled in a corner, her face hidden under her messy irregular hair, her arms holding her legs so tightly, as if she was trying to seek protection from what was around her. But there was nothing around her. It was all _inside_. And she knew it, which was why she was so scared.

She saw her trembling softly and heard her whimpering. She didn't even remember when was the last time she had seen her cry, but she was sure it had never been like _this_. The flesh from her arms looked pale, thin and beaten, with bruises all over them, scars and burns fading away very slowly. Her bare feet were just alike, pale and beaten.

"_We had to lock her on her own, Your Majesty. She hurt herself with anything we left around…even the walls, if necessary."_ The guard had said, while he guided her there _"The Doctors still can't get through her…"_

She was a mess. A gathering of pieces put together with no care, stashed aside on confinement, hidden from the world. What had they done to her? What had she done to herself?

"Azula…" she called, softly and carefully,

The broken girl lifted her head slowly, her pale face with dry tears across her cheeks and her eyes empty from the soul it once carried inside. But those eyes lit again once she looked back at the woman who was calling her name.

"Mother?" Azula asked, her eyes gleaming with a combination of recognition, hope and anger.

"Yes, dear" Ursa said softly, still keeping a distance from her daughter.

"You…why are you…?" Azula's eyes were wondering everywhere, trying to find a way out of this nightmare she was in.

Tears started forming in her eyes once again when she understood that it wasn't a nightmare but her reality.

"Zuko found me and helped me come back." Ursa sat down on the cell's floor, still keeping her distance from her…not for her own safety, but for her daughter's.

"Zuko, of course" Azula held a resigned smile "Your baby Zuzu"

"Azula, look at me" Ursa said firmly but not rising her tone.

"No…" the girl retorted while grabbing her legs again, quivering and looking away.

"_Look at me_" Ursa didn't give up.

"NO!" Azula screamed, tightening her grip as much as to stick her long nails in her own flesh.

"Azula…" Ursa felt tears coming down her eyes "I'm so sorry…"

"DO NOT DARE, MOTHER!" she turn to her at last, rage spreading like flames in her eyes "DO NOT DARE TO PITY ME!" she stood up, still trembling "I DID EVERYTHING I WAS SUPPOSED TO, MOTHER…I did…_everything_…" tears blurred her vision and she let herself fall on the ground again.

Ursa tried her hardest not to cry in front of her, so she didn't see in her mother what she called "pity" but was actually love and care.

"I did everything father wanted, I became like him…Zuko betrayed him but he's a hero…and I'm…I'm…" Azula turned to her mother, violently "LOOK AT ME!"

Ursa did so, with all the pain that her motherly heart could hold.

"You were always so proud of him…and so disgusted of me" Azula smiled with irony "You must be the happiest mother of the world now that your dear child is the Fire Lord"

"You are my child too, Azula" she replied.

The girl then laughed. Her laugh was painful, ironic, acid and filled with pain. It was a laughter that sounded and felt like a cry.

"I'm not your child. I'm a _monster_" she said, smiling "An awful," she scratched her forearms with her pointy nails "lost," another scratch "disgusting," and another "insane _monster_."

She was about to hurt herself one last time, but Ursa took her from her wrist. Azula was so weak now, just a shadow of who she once was.

"DON'T TOUCH ME!" she cried, moving violently to get rid of her mother's grip "LET GO OF ME!"

"I will, as soon as you stop hurting yourself" Ursa was a soft and delicate lady, but she was also the strong woman who sacrificed herself once and would do it again for any of her children.

Azula stopped fighting and slowly sat still on the floor, still trembling and crying.

"You have a long way to go until you're better, dear, but I'll be here" said Ursa, sitting down beside her daughter.

"I don't want you here, _go away_" Azula covered her face with her battered trembling hands.

"I'll be here, you want it or not. You don't need to talk to me, you don't need to recognize I'm here, I'll just sit here if necessary"

"And what?" the girl looked up to her mother "look at me with pity and resentment, like Zuko did?" her voice was cracking again "Don't do that…" she was crying now, like she did before "_please_…"

Ursa didn't remember the last time she saw…or if she had ever seen her daughter being so vulnerable. Azula's mind was a house of cards, and they all came crumbling down until all that was left of her was this fear of being exposed. The walls she took so much time to build around her, walls that were supposed to keep her untouchable and invincible, all came down leaving her with nothing more than loneliness and insecurity. And she saw it coming. Back when Azula was a little girl, Ursa knew it would eventually happen.

"They all did what you did" her daughter said "They all left me for Zuko, just like you did" she was looking at the ground but her mind was lost somewhere else "Mai, Ty Lee…I'm sure Uncle Iroh would have killed me if it was up to him…"

"Azula, don't say…"

"_He would have_. And I don't blame him, I'd have killed him as well if I've had the chance. I would have preferred him to kill me rather than be here, waiting for nothing but seeing what I have become…"

"Do you regret it, child?" Ursa asked, with hope.

"No." Azula said without thinking "I don't know. I don't care. I did what I had to do when I had to do it."

"And why did it ended up like this, then?" her mother searched for her gaze "Do you consider yourself a _victim_, Azula?"

She froze. _Did she_? No, she was once strong and fearsome, she wasn't anybody's victim. But she always considered that her mother neglected her, so was she treating herself like a victim back then? She also said that her friends left her, was it because she thought that she was a victim of their actions?

"You know more than anyone that one shapes one's own fate. You are the one who took the future in your hands and set it on fire; so why do you think everything _was done to you_, Azula? Why can't you see that it may be a consequence of how you behave?" Ursa spoke softly, with care but certainty.

"So, I scared you away from me?" she lifted her head at last and looked at her mother in the eyes.

"No, dear, not me; your friends, your brother, your uncle, they all maybe chose to leave you because of what you did to them; but I never intended to leave you" she sighed "I knew you were vengeful and angry back then, that you felt neglected and acted like so, that you wanted to please your father. But, as a mother, I should have stayed by your side to make you understand that you were wrong and by Zuko's side to tell him that his heart was initially in the right place. Sadly, I couldn't, I had to leave to save Zuko's life…but that's not the point right now."

"And which one is?" Azula asked.

"You." Ursa took her daughter's face in her hands "You are the point. Zuko had insecurities when he came to look for me and release me from our distance; but I've seen that he has faithful friends, the Avatar among them, who will keep him in the right path. I'll be there for him if he needs me, but right now, you need me more." She took the broken girl between her arms and hugged her trembling body "I owe you to be by your side now, Azula, until you come out of this hole you've buried yourself into".

Azula started crying like never before in her life. The touch of her mother and her love burned her, suffocated her, made her feel helpless and weak, and she couldn't stand that. But, at the same time, she was tired; tired of fighting back, of faking sanity and strength, of being the perfect assassin daughter for her father. She was tired of being alone, of exerting respect and loyalty out of fear and threats, of being lied to, left alone and unloved. She was tired of being the one people felt sorry for, she wanted to be the perfect daughter again, praised by her father and admired by her soldiers, but now she knew that those feelings were false and empty. They were all illusions, a mirage to make her feel alright and distract her from the hole pressing more and more inside her chest. The hole only filled with that emptiness which, very deep inside, she thought that she was always going to have inside her instead of love.

She wanted to give up. To die. To escape that awful nightmare. But she couldn't now, because her mother wouldn't let her. So she just cried, as she was held in an embrace. She cried and trembled like a baby in her mother's arms, until it didn't burn anymore, didn't hurt anymore, until she could breath normally again.

"It will take time, sweetheart" Ursa whispered to her daughter "But I'll help you through it. I'm here now. _Because I love you_"

And then, Azula did something she never thought possible for her. She hugged her mother back.

**The End**

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><p>If I made you feel empathy and compassion for Azula, at least for a moment, then I've reached my goal.<p>

I've always felt some kind of understanding towards Azula, for some reason. I think I tend to feel empathy for mentally misbalanced characters like her. The truth is that the last scene of hers, when she cried desperately and spit fire all around, broke my heart. All that pain, growing for so many years, and she was always so alone. I'm not saying she didn't do all the things she did, but I felt so bad for her. And I wanted to try getting inside her head and write some kind of attempt of making her feel a little better. It was said that there was hope for her to improve and, since Ozai mentioned Ursa in what what've seen of The Promise Part I, I figured she could eventually come back and, if she did, she was the only one who could help Azula.

I didn't work the way in which Zuko ended up finding her because I didn't wanna miss the point of this story, but I would place this after the graphic novel or during it, depending what happens with Ursa's whereabouts in The Promise, which I'm loving so far.

I don't expect this one to be liked as much and reviewed as much as others, but I definetly enjoyed writing it. And, you know, when you're happy with a story, people don't usually like it, and when you don't, people does xD Anyway, thanks for reading and review if you feel like it! It'd make me happy!

Nos leemos pronto!

Luly


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